A business wanting 150 mailboxes of the Professional Edition: $28 x 150 = $4,200 per year. This license commitment is eligible for Zimbra Basic Support.

A government agency looking for the same package: $14 x 150 = $2,100 per year. Also eligible for Zimbra Basic Support.

How do you define a "mailbox license"? Is that one person?

A mailbox license is an account with a physical email inbox and typically belongs to one person.

Now it is possible to have an account set up for a virtual "role" within your organization that may not be staffed by an individual. So, to decide how many licenses you want to purchase the next question becomes when do you need a new account versus just using an alias or distribution list (which are not considered new accounts).

First some definitions:

Account: "Jane@work.com", she has a mailbox, calendar, documents, quota, etc.

An account is considered a provisioned account that is counted against your license, regardless of the account status. The only accounts that are not counted against your license are system accounts (for example spam and archiving), and external virtual accounts (for example, a share granted to a user on another email system).

Alias: She can also be "jane.smith@work.com" or even "info@work.com".

The alias is unique to this account

Jane could receive email sent to info@work.com and would reply back as "jane@work.com"

All the mail sent to the alias lives in her mailbox (if she leaves the mail archive for "info" would be lost)

Distribution List: A group of accounts / aliases

To have a permanent role in your organization for "info@work.com" that doesn't disappear if Jane moves you will want a new account. This way others can log in to check the email, you will have an archive, you can reply back to messages as "info", plus Jane won't have all the "info@work.com" counting against quota.

Important: Microsoft Exchange and Office 365 count disabled or inactive mailboxes against your license, because you are retaining a copy of the data and have access to the account. If you don't want the mailbox counted against your license, you can retain a copy of the account by exporting the data using your own method or you can delete the account.

Can I get Zimbra if I want fewer than 25 mailboxes?

We sell ZCS for on-premise deployment at a minimum of 25 mailboxes, so there are two options if you want less than 25:

For on-premise installations some customers purchase the minimum 25 licenses, planning for growth

Most use one of Zimbra's many hosting providers who will provide the exact number of mailboxes you need (remember Zimbra does not provide hosting to customers, we only sell ZCS for on-premise deployment)

Will Zimbra host ZCS for me?

No, we only sell the software license. If you want someone to host Zimbra for you we have many Hosting Partners who can provide you with that service.

I am running the Network Edition trial, how do I buy Zimbra?

You can purchase ZCS by contacting your sales representative or simply buy online. Things to know: the number of Standard / Professional Edition mailbox licenses you want, if you need Zimbra Mobile, Zimbra Archiving and Discovery or any Support options and they will provide you with a quote form and contract to sign. Not sure who your sales contact is?, just email sales@zimbra.com.

I am running ZCS Open Source Edition, can I upgrade to Network Edition?

Yes. The process is the same as a typical upgrade.

Perform a backup of your Open Source environment (just in case)

Download the Network Edition and unzip it

Follow the installation process by running ./install.sh (You should get prompted if you want to upgrade from an existing version of Zimbra, in this case OSS. Choose 'Yes' and follow directions).

Is it possible to mix ZCS Open Source Edition accounts with Network Edition accounts in one installation?

Unfortunately you can not mix them, but there are multiple versions of Network Edition available to meet varying needs.

Can I have some accounts running ZCS Network Edition Professional and then most accounts running Standard in my installation?

Yes. From a features standpoint, this is managed by "Class of Service" in the Administration Console where you can set up different features per account. A business running ZCS on-premise that wants to have 50 accounts with Standard and 50 with Professional features would purchase 50 of each license respectively. Service providers can also define their own COS, but should contact Sales for details on the resale pricing model.

How much storage does each Zimbra account come with?

If you are installing ZCS on premise then storage is only limited by how much physical storage space you wish to allocate to each account (eg it can be unlimited, 10GB, 2GB, etc) depending on hardware constraints. The Administration Console allows your IT team to easily set up "Class of Service" for the accounts.

If you wish to purchase a Zimbra account from a hosted service provider, they will determine how much storage will be allocated to you; typically based on industry norms.

How do I get Zimbra Support? What options are available?

Zimbra Support is provided to users who purchase ZCS Network Edition. All customers who purchase are eligible for Basic service which includes Email, Support Portal access, Knowledge Base, and upgrades. Customers with a qualifying license commitment are eligible for Premium service which includes phone and 24x7 crisis support. Basic service customers are able to purchase "Per Incident" phone and crisis support if they wish.

Network trial users are also eligible for Basic support for the duration of their 60 day trial.

Why don't I have phone support?

Paying customers must have Premium support service or have paid for "Per Incident" phone support on top of their Basic support service. Network trial users are eligible for Basic Support only, which does not include phone support.

What happens when my Network Edition 60 day Trial license expires?

Your basic ZCS features will still be working, but the following occurs:

You can no longer add new user accounts

Zimbra Mobile and the Zimbra Outlook & iSync Connectors will be disabled

Administrators will see an alert message when they log into the Admin console

Of course, if you're not ready to purchase Network Edition but like Zimbra, you can always revert the Trial to the Open Source Edition. You will lose all the Network Edition benefits, but your data will still be intact plus you will have the basic features.

What is the Support and Maintenance renewal policy for customers on Zimbra Perpetual license ?

Customers under a perpetual license must pay 20% support during the first year, and thereafter can elect annually whether to renew Support and Maintenance. Such customers must be under a current Support agreement to be eligible to receive any minor updates (such as 6.0.x) including security patches/updates, major updates (such as 6.x) or new versions (such as 7.0). Customers who choose to not renew their Support at the time of the annual renewal may subsequently resume Support, and have access to product updates and upgrades, by paying the "true up amount" back to the time of non-renewal. An additional reinstatement fee may also be applied.

For example, if the customer fails to renew for 6 months, in order to resume Support, the customer must pay 18 months (6 months of unpaid support + 1 year of support from date of renewal) to get back on the Support and Maintenance plan.

Which browsers does the web client work with?

Firefox 1.5+ on PC, Mac, Linux

Internet Explorer 6+ on PC

Safari 2.0+ on Mac

What versions of the Ubuntu Linux OS does Zimbra support?

We support Ubuntu 6.06 LTS (Long Term Support). This is the 'enterprise' version of Ubuntu and is officially supported by Canonical, the commercial arm of Ubuntu (this version will be supported by them for the next 3 - 5 years). When the next release candidate of "LTS" is available we will support it; the next candidate is likely 18 - 24 months out.

There are newer versions of Ubuntu (eg 6.10) available in their community but we do not support or test against them. Users who wish to install ZCS on these newer OS' obviously do so at their own risk.

What languages is Zimbra translated into?

Does Zimbra set a storage limit or quota on accounts?

Administrators can set any storage quota limit they feel is appropriate for an account (or multiple accounts via Class of Service) in a deployment, eg 54MB, 2.2GB, 4GB... Technically there is no physical storage limit imposed by the ZCS platform itself. But practically speaking, storage limits should be set based on the physical hard drive space available, number of users, limitations present in any sync 'end points', and overall growth projections. In the field we have seen office workers with Zimbra accounts as large as 6 to 7GB! (Don't ask us how someone gets that much email).